"You are welcome!" he replied and sat down on one of the two round stones which lay on top of each other in the middle of the threshing floor, where the threshing animals were tethered.
While he was filling his pipe, four men came up, all without vests. They sat down on the paving which lies beneath the stone enclosure of the threshing-floor.
"What a heat!" exclaimed the oldest amonng the arrivals. He had a huge moustache, and with his sleeve he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
The three other fellows were also panting, and they too were wiping the sweat away, which was oozing from them as if they had come up at the double, although they had really been walking quite slowly.
The serdar adjusted the tinder on the flint, and as he lighted his pipe, he exclaimed:
"Yes, a heat such as we have every year about this time."
"And you, cousin, have put on your jacket into the bargain. . . It is a marvel that you do not melt beneath it!" added one of the younger men.
The serdar frowned, and his eyebrows were drawn together; he seemed to have become angry at this remark. He blew some clouds of smoke into the air, and then, turning to the speaker, he exclaimed:
"I have been used to that from my childhood,
